Bob McCarty Writes

The words below should hit home with anyone who’s made a trip to the supermarket recently:

“As financial markets have tumbled, food prices have soared. Since 2005, the prices of staples have jumped 80 percent. Last month, the real price of rice hit a 19-year high; the real price of wheat rose to a 28-year high and almost twice the average price of the last 25 years.

“The good news for some farmers adds a crushing load to the most vulnerable – children, as young as four or five, forced to flee the safety of their rural communities to fight for food in teeming cities; food riots threatening societal breakdown; mothers deprived of nutrition for healthy babies. The World Bank Group estimates that 33 countries around the world face potential social unrest because of the acute hike in food and energy prices. For these countries, where food comprises from half to three quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival.”

Daunting words, spoken by Robert B. Zoellick, president of The World Bank Group. He delivered them April 2 to world leaders gathered at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.

To read the entire text of Zoellick’s speech, click here.

Hat tip: CNSNews